Category: Education

Does Increased Spending on Higher Education lead to Better State University Rankings?

I thought you would find the rankings of state higher education spending and state university rankings useful. Intuitively one would believe that states that spend more would have better ranked universities. Higher State spending does not mean it is a Best State for Education. Lower State spending does not mean it is a Worst State for Education. A closer look is warranted.

Utah spends the most of its state budget on higher education at 15.5%. Its University of Utah is ranked 126 according to U.S. News 2009 College Ratings. New York spends the least of all states on higher education with only 5.4% of its budget yet its highest rated public school SUNY-Binghamton is ranked higher than Utah at 80. North Dakota is a close second in spending at 15.4% and its university’s state ranking in education is Tier III. Tier III means it is ranked in the 50-75% of all national universities i.e. below average. 7 of the 10 lowest spending states on higher education have higher university rankings than high spending North Dakota. North Dakota does not get much bang for its buck.
High Spending States on Higher Education and University Rankings

NorthCarolina is third highest ranked state on higher education spending at 14.2% and has the highest rated public university of the high spending states with a rank of 28. This appears to be a positive spend to school rank association. Yet neighboring Georgia with a spend of 7.6% has its Georgia Institute of Technology rated 35. Georgia Institute of Technology is higher than every high spend state ranking other than North Carolina.

Alaska is the second lowest higher education spending ranked state at 6.1% and appears to get what it pays for. Its school is rated a bottom 25% Tier IV by U.S. News. Florida is the third lowest state in spend at 6.3% and appears to get very good returns with the University of Florida rated 47, higher than every high spend state other than North Carolina.
States with the lowest spending on higher education are primarily in the Northeast. 7 of the lowest 10 states are from the Northeast. They are, in addition to New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Maine. Yet 4 of the states, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut have higher ranked schools than every high spend state other than North Carolina.
Low Spending States on Higher Education and University Rankings

A simple thesis that more spending on education leads to better results continues to be elusive. Be wary of political leaders who say that they are managing your education system better by spending more money. Check the results.

The College Board released today the 2009 SAT Scores by State. They strongly encourage people to look at the data stand alone yet it seems everyone wants to see the SAT Rankings by State. We picked them up from a variety of news sources and present them to you with caution. Some states have low participation rates and arguably can tilt the field. We will follow up with some analysis in a future post. Also see our post Does Increased Spending on Higher Education lead to Better State University Rankings?Top SAT State Scores include Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Missouri. These States primarily have their students take the ACT test so their numbers may not be representative of the entire state.

The Worst States for SAT Scores include Maine, Hawaii, South Carolina, Georgia and New York. DC is also very low.
Here is the ranking of SAT Scores by State List:

2009 State Sat Scores

Rate

Reading

Math

Writing

Total

1

Iowa

3%

610

615

588

1813

2

Wisconsin

5%

594

608

582

1784

3

Minnesota

7%

595

609

578

1782

4

Missouri

5%

595

600

584

1779

5

Illinois

6%

588

604

583

1775

6

Michigan

5%

584

603

575

1762

7

South Dakota

3%

589

600

569

1758

8

Nebraska

4%

587

594

572

1753

9

North Dakota

3%

590

593

566

1749

10

Kansas

7%

581

589

564

1734

11

Kentucky

7%

573

573

561

1707

12

Oklahoma

5%

575

571

557

1703

13

Tennessee

10%

571

565

565

1701

14

Arkansas

5%

572

572

556

1700

15

Colorado

20%

568

575

555

1698

16

Wyoming

5%

567

568

550

1685

17

Mississippi

4%

567

554

559

1680

18

Louisiana

7%

563

558

555

1676

19

Alabama

7%

557

552

549

1658

20

Utah

6%

559

558

540

1657

21

New Mexico

11%

553

546

534

1633

22

Ohio

22%

537

546

523

1606

23

Montana

22%

541

542

519

1602

24

Idaho

18%

541

540

520

1601

25

Washington

53%

524

531

507

1563

26

New Hampshire

75%

523

523

510

1557

27

Massachusetts

84%

514

526

510

1551

28

Oregon

52%

523

525

499

1548

29

Vermont

64%

518

518

506

1543

30

Connecticut

83%

509

513

512

1535

31

Arizona

26%

516

521

497

1534

32

Alaska

46%

520

516

492

1528

33

Virginia

68%

511

512

498

1522

34

California

49%

500

513

498

1511

35

West Virginia

18%

511

501

499

1511

36

New Jersey

76%

496

513

496

1506

37

Maryland

69%

500

502

495

1498

38

Rhode Island

66%

498

496

494

1489

39

North Carolina

63%

495

511

480

1487

40

Nevada

42%

501

505

479

1485

41

Indiana

63%

496

507

480

1484

42

Delaware

71%

495

498

484

1478

43

Pennsylvania

71%

493

501

483

1478

44

Florida

59%

497

498

480

1476

45

Texas

51%

486

506

475

1468

46

New York

85%

485

502

478

1466

47

Georgia

71%

490

491

479

1461

48

South Carolina

67%

486

496

470

1453

49

Hawaii

58%

479

502

469

1451

50

Maine

90%

468

467

455

1391

51

DC

79%

466

451

461

1379

All Students

46%

501

515

493

1509

Source: College Board and various news services Rate: Student Population Rate as reported by www.collegeboard.com

EPE Research this past week published a state ranking of education spending per student.

While the quality of education may be influenced by the amount of money spent, spending more money does not insure that students actually learn more. We found it interesting to note how money spent and SAT scores were associated.
The highest spending state, Vermont, is rated 30th in SAT scores nationwide. The lowest spending state, Utah, gets higher SAT scores from their students and is ranked 20th above Vermont. Far less money, higher score. The Best State (highest) SAT score comes from Iowa yet their spending of $9,977 per student is right in the middle at 25th and right at the national average of spending. The WorstState Sat score comes from Maine yet it spends the 5th most money in the nation.

With all the spending coming out of Congress, we might want to ask for more accountability on results. The various state legislatures, that are making spending decisions, clearly can not show that more money leads to better results. Check out our previous post on Best and Worst State SAT Scores

The data is regionally adjusted so it takes into consideration relative cost. While SAT scores are only one performance measurement it is an important and consistent test metric across the entire nation.Blog Search Engine

This question was raised in prior posts.
I thought you might find these 2 charts interesting. Best and Worst States For Education Spending ranks all states by spending and shows the SAT Score Rank of its students. I also have attached a Chart from Heritage that shows that the best funded cities do not have the highest graduation rates.

The more money spent clearly does not show up in higher SAT scores or graduation rates.

New Jersey spends the most money. Its SAT score rank is 33 . New York, at 2nd on the money spend, ranks 44th on SAT scores. The “Worst” State for Education Spending is Utah yet its students rank 20th on the SAT score list above NY and New Jersey. Utah spends about 1/3 the dollars of NY and New Jersey. Its students do better than all of the Top 10 spenders on Education. Utah may be considered a Best State for Education considering its bang for the dollar.
Arizona is the next lowest spend state yet ranks 29th on the SAT Scores list. Arizona students perform better than the top 6 spenders. Mesa, AZ which is at the bottom of the Heritage list of city spends has a graduation rate of 77.1%. Mesa spends only 40% of Boston which has a much lower graduation rate of 57%.

Clearly money is not the only factor that impacts educational performance. You may want to consider carefully your state’s approach to education. It appears more dollars on education does not lead to better results. Tell your political leaders you want accountability for results not just money spent.

State

Ed Spend

SAT Rank

1

New Jersey

15,033

36

2

New York

14,593

44

3

DC

14,214

50

4

Connecticut

13,059

31

5

Vermont

12,749

30

6

Rhode Island

12,425

41

7

Massachusetts

12,398

29

8

Delaware

11,619

43

9

Alaska

11,551

33

10

Maine

11,014

51

11

Pennsylvania

10,900

45

12

Wyoming

10,852

16

13

Maryland

10,682

37

14

New Hampshire

10,405

26

15

Wisconsin

10,388

6

16

Michigan

9,947

13

17

Ohio

9,936

23

18

West Virginia

9,609

32

19

Hawaii

9,581

48

20

Indiana

9,498

38

21

Illinois

9,473

2

22

Virginia

9,463

34

23

Nebraska

9,365

9

24

Minnesota

9,284

3

25

Montana

8,661

22

26

Oregon

8,595

27

27

Georgia

8,589

46

28

Iowa

8,479

1

29

Kansas

8,440

7

30

California

8,418

35

31

Missouri

8,368

4

32

New Mexico

8,342

21

33

North Dakota

8,337

7

34

Colorado

8,334

18

35

Washington

8,218

25

36

Louisiana

8,167

14

37

Arkansas

8,156

11

38

South Carolina

8,039

49

39

South Dakota

7,949

5

40

Texas

7,716

42

41

Florida

7,683

47

42

Kentucky

7,595

15

43

Alabama

7,532

19

44

North Carolina

7,352

41

45

Tennessee

7,295

10

46

Nevada

7,246

41

47

Oklahoma

7,039

12

48

Mississippi

6,973

17

49

Idaho

6,729

24

50

Arizona

6,586

29

51

Utah

5,555

20

Sources: Dept of Education. Spending not regionally adjusted. College Board.

GMAC does an annual study of state rankings for the Best and Worst States for driver knowledge.

Kansas drivers are rated the most knowledgeable. Wyoming, Nebraska, Idaho and Minnesota round out the top 5 Best States respectively. New Jersey is Worst State for knowledgeable drivers. DC, New York, Massachusetts and Georgia are rated along with New Jersey as the 5 Worst States.

The study was done by administering a 20 question to test to 5,524 licensed drivers and ranking the results by state. The Midwest has
the most knowledgeable drivers while the Northeast had the lowest scores and highest exam failure rates. For more detail go to

Student SAT scores are an important indicator of college preparedness. Where a child grows up and gets educated can dramatically alter his or her performance and opportunities in life. Here are the Best and Worst States for SAT Scores for 2008.